Highlights:

  • The company is working on improving its featured snippets, using its new AI Model “MUM,” to provide higher-quality search results quickly.
  • The content advisories are updated to not just show an advisory for evolving stories but also when information could be unreliable.

Google has modified its search engine to give consumers access to the best information possible.

Google is starting by enhancing the highlighted snippet for its search engine. A search result’s featured snippet, typically contained in a separate box and printed in a larger font, provides fast, glanceable information that (ideally) provides the most comprehensive answer to a query. It eliminates the need to click the link and conduct more research to locate the solution.

As a support for this functionality, Google claims to be integrating its newest AI model, MUM (Multitask Unified Model). The company claims that its AI model will aid its systems in “understanding the notion of consensus, which is when multiple high-quality sources on the web all agree on the same fact.”

This enables Google’s search algorithms to verify the accuracy of the facts provided in a snippet by comparing them to those from other reliable sources. The snippet is supposed to give users more trustworthy responses. Additionally, Google’s new AI model is assisting in reducing the use of snippets when unnecessary, especially when there may not be a clear-cut response to a query. These are supposed to be more reliable in the future.

Google considers information acquired through Search as well as search results when making improvements. The “About this result” section, which can be accessed by clicking the three dots next to each individual search result, is being expanded by Google in order to achieve that goal. The company is working on adding more data to this function, including reviews of the source, how broadly it has been disseminated, whether a company is owned by another, and even when Search cannot uncover any additional data about it.

By adding “About this result” to the Google app, which users can reach by swiping up from the bottom navigation bar, Google is expanding the section. Currently only available in English, it will eventually be made available online in Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and Indonesian later this year.

The content advisories that Google first implemented for new information, such as breaking news that was still developing, are now being expanded. Google had this set up to warn users that the information might change and that it would probably be best to check again later. This advisory system is presently being expanded to alert users that “there aren’t many great results” for a search. After that, users can be prompted to examine the sources for their results or run another search.

These revisions follow Google’s latest adjustments to Search, which enhance the outcomes of cited queries. Google claims that this move will give users more context regarding where the quoted language occurs in a particular result despite its shortcomings.